Looking to buy my first snake

[Chris T.]

Hi everyone, first off let me start by introducing myself. My name is Chris, and I live in San Diego, California. I'm 29 years old and I've never owned a snake before.

My 6 year old daughter surprised me one day about a month ago by asking for a pet snake. I took her to a local pet store, and they had a young corn snake that was about 12-15 inches long. My daughter surprised me again when she held the snake comfortably for about 5 minutes. There was no way I was going to buy one if she was going to be afraid of it.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been buying supplies and getting everything ready for a snake. I'm just about ready to buy a snake, but I have been unable to locate one I want in San Diego. The one my daughter held the first time has long since been sold.

I've found a few websites for breeders, and they seem to have really good prices but I'm not sure if this is how I want to buy a snake.

My first question is when you buy a snake from one of these breeders do you get to choose which one you get or do they send you a random snake from they type you ordered.

Also, how well do corn snakes handle shipping?

I see listings still for 2001 hatchlings, about what month are the 2002 hatchlings expected?

Which breeders do you recommend?

If any of you are in the Southern California area, do you know of a good place to buy snakes and supplies here?

I'll stop here for now. Sorry my post is so long, but any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Simon]

"My first question is when you buy a snake from one of these breeders do you get to choose which one you get or do they send you a random snake from they type you ordered."

Well if you are buying a corn snake from a breeder, you don't really get a choice to choose any from them. They do all the picking for you. If you really really want to pick one yourself, you have to either go get it in a pet shop or go directly to the breeder in order to pick one. But then trust me on this, the breeders do know how to pick them and they are just georgous. Any one of the snakes that the breeders pick are absolutly the best. All the snakes that I got from the breeders are much much more better looking than the 2 that I got from the pet shop. Also there are some reasons why you shouldn't pick a snake from the pet shop. 1) a lot of the pet shop owners don't know anything about snakes
2) a lot of them feed them crickets instead of the regular meal of pinky (day born mice)
3) they might have diseases
4) might even have mites
5) dehydrated
6) some die within a few days of purchasing.......

but these are just some of the pet shops, not all......but then snake breeders have guarantee that they are healthy and if you you don't like them in anyway, you can always refund them within a few months. (this applies to most big breeders only)

"Also, how well do corn snakes handle shipping?"

they do great with shipping. I just got 7 of mine shipped from a breeder (Rich) to my friend's place. They arrived great and they are eating already.

"I see listings still for 2001 hatchlings, about what month are the 2002 hatchlings expected?"

well the hatchlings tend to pop out around this time. Some people have already posted that their little ones have already started poping out. But them most of them come out during June - Aug. If you can wait a few more months the 2002 price list should be coming out very soon.


Which breeders do you recommend?

well I would recommend a few breeders (not in any particular order):

www.corn-utopia.com (Bill and Kathy Loves)
Note: if you are going to get a corn snake, you MUST get the "Corn Snake Manuel" from Bill and Kathy Loves. This book has so much information on corn snake and trust me, you will benefit a lot from this. It's only around $15 US so it's really cheap, but with tons of information. (Ordered from Kathy before)

www.serpenco.com (Rich Zuchowski)
He has a lot of great looking corns. He is also very helpful. (Ordered from him before)

www.cornsnakes.net (South Mountain Reptiles)
Also has a lot of great looking corns.
(No experience yet, but hopfully soon)

www.gherp.com (Glads Herp)
A lot of variety of snakes, not just corns. All good looking and healthy.
(No experience yet, but have been there a few times)

"If any of you are in the Southern California area, do you know of a good place to buy snakes and supplies here?"

this I don't know.....maybe someone else can help you with this...

Hope this helped.....if you have another questions just come back and post again.

Good Luck and Happy Herping!

[CornsnakeKeeper]

-They send you one of the type you ordered. You can't be too picky unless maybe you enclose some extra cash and they'll send you pictures. I think Rich offers this service for ten dollars. (serpenco.com) Maybe a smaller breeder online will find the time. Best way to find out is to ask.

-The snakes will recover from the shipping experience shortly and they'll be healthy.

-2001 hatchlings are almost year old. The peak of new baby clutches hatching is July or early August usually.

-Good breeders to try are serpenco.com (Rich Zuchowski), corn-utopia.com (Kathy Love), and cornsnakes.net (Don Sodenberg)

Good luck! Glad to see you're preparing ahead of time.

[kellum]

If this is a pet for your young daughter I would recommend a 2001 hatchling.
I hear they are a little tougher. That is my plan anyway ( have been preparing for a while as well). I have a 6 year old and an 11 year old that are already arguing over our first corns name and we haven't even got it yet.

Good luck.

[Chris T.]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate the help. I ordered the Cornsnake Manual from Amazon.com the day before my original post, so hopefully the book will be here soon.

I bought a 9 month old amelanistic today. I found her at a local pet store. The owner of the store is also a breeder, and he was very helpful. She looks a lot like this one
http://www.cornsnake.net/gallery/amel_corn.jpg

My daughter named her Jenny. I'm going to try and get some pics of her later. If all goes well I might be ordering another snake in a couple months. I would really like to get a Lavender. I think those look very pretty.

Once again thanks for your help, and I'll be around. I might not post much, but I will be reading the board.

[Iris]

Originally posted by Simon

2) a lot of them feed them crickets instead of the regular meal of pinky (day born mice)


Would a snake really eat crickets? Don't you mean that they SAY the snake will eat crickets so people won't be grossed out by the fact that it actually eats mice and they'll be more likely to buy it?
I mean, mine will definitely go for anything small, pink, and wiggly (even fingers..) especially if it smells like a mouse...but for little jumping insects? I don't think so...

And Chris, good luck to you and your daughter with Jenny!
Thinking about getting a Lavender, eh? I see you're addicted already...;)

[Simon]

Hey Chris T.
Good luck with your snake and remember to post pics if you have them. I don't know about others.....but I just love seeing pics of other people's snake!

Originally posted by Iris


Would a snake really eat crickets? Don't you mean that they SAY the snake will eat crickets so people won't be grossed out by the fact that it actually eats mice and they'll be more likely to buy it?
I mean, mine will definitely go for anything small, pink, and wiggly (even fingers..) especially if it smells like a mouse...but for little jumping insects? I don't think so...

And Chris, good luck to you and your daughter with Jenny!
Thinking about getting a Lavender, eh? I see you're addicted already...;)

Iris,
no they DO NOT eat crickets. In fact, there are cases where people do actually think that they eat crickets and feed them crickets. Then have them in their enclosure with the corn snake together....it might be a way of selling the corns, but then from the looks from my eyes, they are not eating well and very very skinny......I would assume that they (the pet shop guys/gals) are really feeding them crickets because of the lack of knowledge they have for the snakes.

That is why I wouldn't buy from a pet shop unless there is at least one person that knows a lot about herps in the shop!

Good Luck and Happy Herping!

[charcoal_mots]

I bought my corn from a internet breeder at vmsherp.com and they have a code number and a pic for each corn and send you the exact one you order if you ask using the code. That or my corn had an exact twin, because they looked exactly alike. I really liked the care they put into shipping her.

[howiet4702]

Ok, I really don't think this guy is still looking for a cornsnake. His 6 y/o daughter is now 9. The post is over 3 years old....

[mattsnake]

Charcoal, stop bring up posts that have been dead for years.

[sircat]

lol...yeah, this is pretty funny